Those words I didn't want to hear

I've always known this day was coming but it doesn't seem to change the way I felt about it.  Yep, "You need to take insulin."  It happened in August of this year.  My Dad had been type 2 diabetic at 35 and my Mom at 40.  The doctors had always said it was just a matter of time.  My insulin resistance happened over the last few years to where I started taking oral medication.  However, that began not to work over the summer.  I saw my sugars start to rise and I started to fight with my dietcians over taking something else.  So they continued to hound me until I finally gave in and I started taking the crazy stuff.

So now that I'm on insulin was it really so bad?  Not really.  It took a while for my sugars to come down to the right level and we had to fiddle with it to get the right amount but now that we are finished I wondered why I waited so long.  I have so much more energy than ever before and I've noticed I can do things again that I couldn't for a while.  Who knew that the needles and the poking would be worth it?

Well the blog has gotten away from me again.  Anyway, lots of things have happened since my last blog in *gasp* January.  First of all we made it through winter.  Winter this year seemed to drag on.  By the time we were finally able to shut down the woodstoves, Art and I were both very sick of dragging in wood.  We have lots of stairs in our house.  So we came up with the brilliant idea of chucking wood from our driveway where the guy dropped it off to the top of the garage.  Our garage is like 12ft high or something close to that.  So Art went out and started chucking.  I waited until he had a good pile and then we worked together to pile it on our back porch.  We did this with seven cords of wood.  Art's poor arm just about gave out by the end as these were not pansy little splinters of wood.  Most of the fall it rained and so thus we piled heavy wet wood.  So in order to have wood that would work well in the stove we needed to pile it indoors as well.  We would through the winter take about a bunch of wood and pile it indoors.  From the dry stuff we would stock next to the stove.  It seemed like the drudgery would never end.  Not to mention the amount of bark and twigs and ash.  But, we survived it and we will do it all again next winter.

To help us through our winter blahs in April we headed down to Myrtle beach.  Our good friend who stays there for about three months of the year offered us a free room.  We decided to take him up on his kind offer!  We had quite the time getting transportation as all of our vehicles took ill right before we left.  Car #1 had a wheel bearing gone and couldn't get it replaced in time.  Car #2 had several known issues but the vibration in the steering tipped us off it wouldn't make it the 17 hour drive.  Truck #1 clutch busted.  That was the end of our vehicle options.  So we decided to get a rental car and go anyway.  We are glad we did.  We had a fantastic time!  On the way down we "had" to stop in Hershey to get some chocolate.  Then we made a quick tour through Washington DC to see the smithsonian.  Too bad we didn't know it was the cherry blossom festival day and they had closed several roads.  We finally made it to Myrtle beach where we had just less than a week to pack in shopping, sleeping and lots of surf!  We even got to the Ripley's aquarium there and got to pet a sting ray and look at all the amazing sharks.  On the way home of course we stopped in Maryland to catch a Newsboys concert.

Now we are in the middle of May and the weather has been wonderful.  There is only a couple more months till the end of school and some serious vacation time.  :)

Sigh

Well here I am the eve before turning 33.  It's snowing and though it is a bit chilly we are fairly toasty with our two woodstoves cheerily burning.  Art sent me out yesterday to buy my birthday present and I realized that I have mostly everything I need.  Oh yes, I could use some new boots but the ones I have do fine.  I would like a new long coat for church but that's way too expensive.  So I got myself a new 9x13 glass baking pan with a lid and it was more fun to just snoop than get the actual present.  Life is good.  I can't say that every day I wake up thinking to myself it's going to be another perfect day but really what more could a girl ask for?  A roof over our heads, mostly warm house, a loving hubby and a crazy cat who entertains us for hours.  Yep, life is good.

2011 is Here

It's hard for me to believe that it is 2011.  I wonder if this year will bring as many surprises as the last.  In 2010 we had a series of struggles and accomplishments.  At the beginning of the year Art became very ill and we were very frustrated that no one could figure out what was wrong with him.  At the same time we also finally had our new propane furnace installed after years of break down with out electric.  By Feb. we were well on our way to heating our home for the first time ever.  Art's illness continued for some time until around May or June when he began finding work in construction.  He had to push himself for quite some time before he started to feel like himself again and he still from time to time feels the effects of it. 

In June, Art was asked by a guy he did a tile job for to come and take a look at his apartment complex where there was a rotting post.  Little did we know what replacing one post would do.  When Art arrived he realized the whole structure had rotted and warped beyond a little repair and got himself into a very large job.  Our friend Darrell jumped in to help him jack up the three story balcony which was around 100 years old and rip it all out.  This first story balcony led to the second story being totally replaced and then the third story balcony.  While I was at home on summer vacation Art was busy working there. 

In August Art definitely needed a vacation as did I.  I had helped hand tools and bring lumber to my handsome hubby for about three weeks of my summer and I was ready to lay around somewhere.  So I booked our vacation and packed all our stuff and we headed out the last week in August to the Gaspe.  It's quite a beautiful spot if you ever have the chance to go.  We saw gorgeous mountains and ocean and most importantly end of season sales in all the tourist shops.  We actually had a good time figuring out how to say things in french but for the most part we could speak english as I had pre-prepared all our meals and snacks.

Setember meant back to school and back to work for me.  I headed back meeting some cute kids and having some of the old regulars back in the van.  For once the van was reasonably quiet even if I ended up with more kids than usual.  Art continued his day job and his night job.  We became like two ships passing in the night.  However, by the time Art's birthday rolled around in November we were able to scedule a weekend away.  We found an awesome cabin where we watched the first snowfall come in from the hot tub.  Truly a great sight.

December meant Christmas preperations were under way and Art continued his grueling schedule.  We managed to find time to get the tree and I decorated the house.  We also bought a new bed for each other for Christmas.  By Christmas eve Art had finally finished his job downtown and we were able to spend a wonderful relaxing Christmas together.  We ended up getting each other "extra" presents, spent time with friends and generally doing nothing throughout the holidays.  So what will happen in 2011?  Who knows but I'm sure whatever it is we will be busy like every other year.  Happy New Year everyone!